Vitamin and mineral riches:

Sea kelp (seaweed) contains more than 60 essential vitamins, minerals and trace elements and is increasingly being recognised as an important natural source of vital nutritional requirements. Recent attention on the diets of cultures with a history of health and longevity has also emphasised the role of sea kelp. The Japanese in particular have attracted much attention in this respect, with sea kelp traditionally accounting for as much as 25% of their diet. Sea kelp is now also gaining popularity in Australia and the western world as a unique natural tonic and an excellent source of iodine.

Sea kelp is actually the richest known source of natural (organic) iodine, which is vital for the prevention and treatment of iodine deficiencies.

Iodine is also important to the function of the thyroid gland, and is a key component of thyroid hormones, which are required for normal development and metabolism. Sea kelp thus offers potential advantages to people looking to find and maintain a healthy body weight as regulating metabolism can play an important role in this goal.

Sea kelp also contains magnesium, calcium, iron, copper, potassium, zinc and natural sea salt. It has the highest natural concentration of calcium of any food (10 times more than milk) and is an excellent alternative to salt. It is also high in fibre and has protein, vitamins A, B, C and E, and beta-carotene - an antioxidant that researchers believe may play a role in cancer prevention.

The ocean's goodness

The sea kelp nutrient profile, which can be between 10 - 20 times greater than that of land vegetables, is influenced by the environment in which it grows. With over-farming, foods from our depleted soils are increasingly lacking in the minerals and trace elements vital for health, while pollution and chemical insecticide and herbicides are also creating unwanted additives.

However, sea kelp offers a more complete nutritional option as it draws its goodness directly from the ocean (and with no unwanted additives if harvested from unpolluted waters). Sea water contains an abundance of all the minerals needed for the perfect functioning of the human body. However, its minerals are in a crude inorganic state which cannot be assimilated into the bloodstream and utilised by the body to build and maintain health. Before such materials can be used by the body, the vital elements in sea water must be incorporated in some organic life.

Sea kelp feeds directly on the minerals and trace elements of sea water, and has the unique ability to concentrate these in its leaves and stems in almost the exact proportions they should be in healthy human blood. This ability has led to sea kelp emerging as an important source of vital elements no longer present in many foods, such as iodine.

Medicinal uses

Some of the medical issues that sea kelp can help with include headaches, stress, constipation, ulcers, indigestion and kidney, liver or respiratory malfunctions. It can also help with weight control and even irritability, depression and lack of energy.

Sea kelp has a long history of medicinal use stemming back to the ancient Greeks who used it to treat intestinal disorders and counteract goitre. Later kelp increasingly found its way into homoeopathy and herbalism where it was first used as a remedy for obesity, goitre, poor digestion, flatulence and obstinate constipation. It has since also demonstrated remedial and normalizing effects on the sensory nerves, arteries, pylorus, colon, liver, gall bladder, pancreas, bile duct, kidneys, prostate gland, uterus, testicles and ovaries.

Today, as new 'miracle' foods and diets continually emerge on the health market, many people are increasingly turning away from fads and back to tried and true products like sea kelp.

Sea Health Golden Kelp products have played an important role in the emergence of sea kelp in Australia for almost 50 years. Today our products continue to grow in popularity as a uniquely natural (hand harvested, processed and packaged) and pure source of sea kelp from the pristine Pacific Ocean off the far South Coast of NSW.